Kate's Nightmare
by son of Zebedee
Summary: Kate Beckett has a nightmare about Richard Castle. How do Kate and Rick respond? One Shot, Complete; Rated T to be safe


I do not have any affiliation with ABC Studios or Andrew Marlowe who like own and control Castle. Thus this is purely my work and has no affiliation with the actually show. This is just a one shot. Please forgive my grammer mistakes.

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"You Lied to Me Kate!" Richard Castle was yelling at the top of his lungs. The hurt was over his face and body language. "You hurt me, why could you do this? How could you do this? Is none of what we have done matter? You've betrayed me!"

Kate was sitting motionless. Everyone was staring at her. Lanie, Esposito, Ryan, Martha, Alexis, Captain Gates and even her own Father were looking down on her. They were ashamed of her. They all disapproved what Kate had done. The secret she kept. "Castle, I couldn't tell you. It would have hurt too much to tell you."

"Yes you could have, Kate. You chose not to." His anger was boiling over at this point. Their relationship had taken a lot of twists and turns over the years but the words Kate was dreading to hear came through, "It over. I'm done. I'm never going to see you again." And with that Rick Castle turned around and walked away.

"No, Castle please come back!" Kate exclaimed but unable to move, powerless. Her secret she kept had come out. Everyone knew now. Everyone hated her. No matter what she did, Castle kept walking away from her. Never turning back to her.

Then the people to the side started to chime in. '_How could you do that Beckett? That was so wrong. Girl, you brought this on yourself. How could you do that to my Son! MY ONLY SON! You ruined my father!'_

Then Kate father spoke, "how could you let Johanna down like that Katie? She be so disappointed in you." She was letting her mother down. Even after she was dead, Kate as still letting her mom down.

All of it was too much. The pain. The shame. Only the day she was shoot could even compare.

Then Kate woke up. She was sweating and breathing hard. Then put a hand to her wound. She began to calm down a little. Kate's had nightmares, bad ones since she was shot. This one though. That nightmare. It hurt. A LOT. So much pain. It seemed so real. Then an idea got in her mind to make sure everything was ok. _Just send a simple text message,_ She thought. She had sent several texts to Castle before. No harm in giving him short one. As Kate got her breathing down she reached for her phone her nightstand next to her bed. She texted Castle, 'hey you doing ok' just to make sure nothing bad had happened.

Instantly Kate regretted that decision. After texting Castle she realized it was just after 3 am. Three freaking AM. She wondered how she'd explain this one to Castle.

However she was just as startled when Castle instantly called her.

At first she thought of not picking up. But then realized that Castle may panic. If Castle panicked who knows who he'd call. Probably 911 and half the prescient. She felt like this text message may be the dumbest thing she ever did. And Kate Beckett had done A LOT OF DUMB THINGS.

So Kate answered the phone call, "Yes Castle."

"Happy middle of the night, Detective Beckett. Do we have a case." The joy in his voice was undeniable.

Kate hesitated, Castle picked up on this, "Kate you there?"

"Castle I'm here." She said faintly. Just enough for him to here.

He responded immediately, "So where is the murder? Are you going to pick me up or something given the time of night?"

Kate exhaled, "Look Castle we don't have a case."

Then the awkward silence begin. After what seemed like eternity, which was at most maybe 10 seconds, Castle responded, "Whats going on Kate?"

Then the silence began, again. Again it seemed like eternity before she spoke, but it was again maybe about 10 seconds. Then Kate, after weighing what to say, finally decided to put off the conversation for another day. "Look Castle I don't know why I sent that text." She breathed in for the next part, "Can we talk about it another time?"

She hoped he would let her off the hook her. And when he responded, "Ok, Kate we'll talk about this later." she thought he really would let off the hook. "Bye" is all he said before hanging up. Kate was relieved. She dodged a bullet there. Maybe not the best choice of words. She laughed. She was able to laugh at that horrible pun. That was good sign.

Kate relaxed back in her bed. She concentrated on breathing, slow deep breaths. _What happened tonight was just a dream. It was just a dream. A bad dream. A nightmare. It wasn't real. It wasn't real._

Kate begin to think about what had happened between her and Castle. All that they had gone through. All that they had yet to go through. She was working towards that. Slowly but she was working towards a future with Rick Castle.

Kate had lost track of time, thinking all those good thoughts, then there was knock on her door.

That startled Kate. Then the person was knocking again at the door. And again.

Kate got up, put on a robe, grabbed her gun and went towards the front door of her apartment. As she got next to the door there was some more knocking. She called out, "Who is it?"

He responded, "Kate, its me, Castle."

Castle! "Castle what are you doing here?" She saw on her phone it was 3:47 am. "Its almost 4 am what are you doing here at this hour?"

He gently let it out, "I'd figure now counts as that later to have that talk."

He wanted to talk, now? "Really Castle you couldn't wait until the morning?"

"Kate do you want to talk about it now or is it not later enough for you?"

Kate sighed, "Castle, I..." she trailed off.

"Can you at least let me in?" Kate hadn't opened the door yet. She promptly opened the door and let Castle in. After he walked in she closed the door. "Kate can you tell me what is going on?"

"Look Castle, can we just talk about this another time?" She was begging him at this point. That text really was becoming the **WORST** decision of her life.

"Kate you sent a text in the middle of the night. Asking if I'm 'ok' and you don't want to talk about why you sent it. What is going on Kate, are doing ok?"

"Look Castle why were you even awake at that time?"

He looked strait into her eyes, "Mother's _One Women Show_ gave me some ideas for Frozen Heat actually. So I was writing and outlining. You texted as I was just about to call it quits for the night. So you texted at basically the perfect time to reach me."

"Oh, that makes a lot of sense." And it did, it appears everything was going wrong with sending that text.

"So Kate why did you text me in the middle of the night?" He said that softly and gently. Wanting to help her.

It was now apparent that Rick wasn't going away without something. He cared for her too much, she knew that. She knew how he felt about her. Had known for months now. She had to give him something, so she decided to give him a little nugget. Not too much tough. Just enough for him to leave. She looked away and spoke so softly, "I had a nightmare."

Castle didn't flinch, he just raised his arms, making the motion to put them on her shoulders but didn't, he didn't want to push too far, pulled his hands back. "And was it about me?" Kate then looked up at him. And slowly shook her head up and down as to make the 'YES' gesture. "Well that is why you sent the text is you wanted to make sure I was ok?" Again Kate made 'Yes' gesture to him. Then Castle did something only Castle could do. In this harsh moment he made Kate laugh, "Well if it was because of Mother's _One Women Show_ I have to honest with you, it would of given me nightmares too."

They both laughed at that. It was exactly what was needed to lighten the mood. She laughed it up at this and so did he when seeing her laughing. They were both laughing at the line so much the basically leaned into each other. Eventually they were next to each other that she decided to hug Castle. She buried her head into Rick's shoulder and looked up to him, and spoke "Thank you."

"For what?"

She let out what she was thinking, "Being you."

Castle took this time, "Well you aren't going to get rid of me, Detective Beckett, I am your partner after all."

"Castle." She looked deeply into his eyes. Those nice blue eyes.

"Yes?"

"Thank you for giving me time."

"What time?" Rick was confused at that line.

She pulled away. She was opening up to him. This felt right so she went forward. "Not pushing me. Letting me heal."

At this Castle looked strait at her, "Its because,"

"I know." Kate interrupted Castle. It just came out. She was shocked by what she said. Castle looked at her stunned. His jaw dropped.

"You knew I was going to say 'Its because that is what partners do.' because we are way more in sync than I realized."

She looked down. She couldn't believe she was saying all these things. Doing all these things. But they felt right. That it was the right time to tell him. "Castle, remember when we thought we closed the case. I keep thinking back to what we said, 'Secrets are like bombs' and that 'they eventually explode'. That is what was giving me this nightmare I had tonight." Kate backed away at that point. Castle let her have her space. He was letting her say what she wanted to, on her terms. He wasn't going to interrupt with a joke. He was willing to wait for her to speak. "Now those walls inside," she looked up at him tears starting to form in her eyes, "they still exist Castle. I know you can't wait forever. I just need more time to get... to break down those walls. And I know its not fair to ask you to wait for me." Kate was tearing up at this point. All of those words basically just came out. No thought in them. Just released from her mouth.

The light bulb was going off in his brain. Castle knew this was his time to speak. "You know how I feel about you, Kate. The nightmare, in them I found out you know about my feelings." He put it so gently. Not mentioning what was going on directly. He used heavy subtext. Like they did most of the time.

Kate was so thankful for what he said, how he didn't mention anything directly. She wasn't ready for direct; yet. The walls were still up inside. But she did put out a very thankful, "Yes."

"Well Kate, then you should know that I'm willing to wait for you. And if I have to wait another four years for that wall to come down, then I'll gladly wait another four years."

"I can ask you to do that."

"You aren't asking. I'm telling you that I will wait for you. And when you are ready, you know how to find me."

"Really?"

"Yes Kate, I'll willing to wait for you. I _WANT_ to wait for you. I want to show you I'm not that guy that is portrayed on page six. That I'm loyal to just you."

It was clear Castle meant every word he said. With this Kate smiled. She let out a very light, "Thank you."

"Kate you know what you can do to thank me?" She looked totally perplexed by this question after what they had just said to one another. "Get some sleep tonight and don't text me in the middle of the night again if its not about a case ok?"

Kate laughed again at this, "That is a deal Castle." With that Rick let himself out and Kate locked the door behind him.

Perhaps that text message was the **BEST** decision of her life.

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I had this idea come to me and I just typed it up. I decided to hide the fact it was an AU of after 4x17 "Once Upon a Crime" to add a little shock value to it. I'm sure some people figured it out right away. I didn't try and hide it too closely.

Thank you for reading, Son of Zebedee


End file.
